Authenticity

If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26

...that 'frantic steeplechase toward nothing' which is the essence of worldliness everywhere.

- Thomas Merton

The essence of one's call to Christ is as real as it is life-giving. It is overwhelmingly positive, and not negative. It is, however, costly. It is more than turning one's back on the world and then doing something that can effectively be carried out in isolation, even if that essentially consists of religious actions.

To be one of Christ's disciples one takes both their life's trajectory as well as their daily decisions from a different set of values than routine social structure. Genuine discipleship is shaped by concerns that are wholly those of God. That is, their life is dedicated completely to the love of God and the love of others.

The end of all of this is found in becoming mature enough and dedicated enough to be able to both launch out and to live without the consolation or support of personal ambition, or social position, or job, or official church sanction...or even family. It also includes the maturity to use this freedom for one thing alone, namely, both the radical love of God and the radical service of the genuine needs of other people. It requires enough maturity to exercise this love for others that is neither confined nor circumscribed by routine or convention, this or that particular form of work, and this or that apostolic office or regimen.

All of this is so because authentic discipleship can never be defined by one's usefulness. In fact, there is a certain uselessness to Christian discipleship because rather than justifying one's life by doing something, their only job is to be something, which is nothing less than a person of God. They do not live by performing a specific function, but by being fully immersed in life itself with no particular direction other than to be true to the leading of God when one last caught sight of that. Therefore, it necessarily involves the cultivation of a certain quality of life, a level of awareness, a depth of consciousness, and a degree of both transcendence and of adoration that is completely foreign to normal life in secular society.

Maturity in the Christian life is nothing short of perfect freedom from that frantic steeplechase toward nothing that betrays the agendas of worldliness everywhere.